


Searching

by Productive_Writings



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Gen, Post-DMC4, R.I.P Credo, and also it's already canon, because he was kind of a side character, losing Credo, not tagged as main character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:35:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23479318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Productive_Writings/pseuds/Productive_Writings
Summary: A search for a loved one, a search for the truth, and a search for strength...... In the end, it's all the same thing.
Relationships: Credo & Kyrie & Nero (Devil May Cry), Kyrie & Nero (Devil May Cry)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Searching

**Author's Note:**

> _Inspired by tumblr feels, and by asking the question: If they were held captive inside the False Saviour's statue, did Nero and Kyrie actually know what had happened to Credo?_
> 
> _The surname 'Eleison' that I always use for Kyrie - and by extension Credo - comes from the full title of the song after which she was named._

Kyrie rested her head against Nero's shoulder, head tilted up to the sky, watching the birds that flocked over the wreckage of the city’s opera house. It was a reprieve, a moment of peace after the tragedy of the day. Her fingers intertwined with his glowing claws, and Nero carefully lead her across the rubble, back out into the quiet streets and towards home. “Credo must be busy helping to evacuate,” she mused, “when do you think he'll be back?”

Nero stopped walking, the question weighing heavily on him as he considered how to answer. He had seen Credo stabbed through the chest with the Yamato, watched him fall from the top of the Saviour statue – and then what? He hadn't hit the ground, had he? No, Dante had caught him, Nero remembered that much. But what happened to him after that? Kyrie’s voice brought him out of his thoughts as she asked him what was wrong. “Nothing,” he told her, not entirely sure that that was the truth. “You're right, he’s probably busy with the last of the Knights. If he isn’t home by morning, we'll look for him, okay?”

That first night was difficult. Kyrie kept waking at random intervals, thinking maybe she’d heard someone entering the house, but whenever she checked, no one had. Nero, meanwhile, was struggling to get to sleep in the first place. He kept going over what had happened in his mind, trying to piece it all together up until the moment he was swallowed by the Saviour. Was there any chance that Credo had survived? Surely there must have been; Credo had ‘Ascended', as the Order called it. Nero had seen Credo's demon form himself. Nero, too had been impaled by a sword that same day, and his own demonic heritage (wherever that came from) had kept him alive in that instance, so why not Credo?

By the time morning came, Nero had made up his mind: he would look for Credo in the last place he had seen him, at the Order’s main headquarters in Mitis Forest. When he explained this to Kyrie, he told her the he, Dante and Credo had all been there trying to stop the rise of the False Saviour, leaving out the part where Credo was a demon and had helped the Order to achieve its plans up until this point and, more critically, when Credo got impaled by Sanctus. Kyrie in turn decided that she would conduct her own search as well, checking to see if he had been admitted to the hospital, and if that failed, then finding out if any one of the evacuation parties had seen him.

The Order’s headquarters lay before Nero in ruins. He could only imagine that it had something to do with the monstrous demon statue that had risen from it with him as its power core. He had hoped that being as far from the city as it was would have saved at least this building from all of the destruction, but he wasn’t so lucky. Finding Credo was going to be a lot less straight forward than he had wanted, and with the state the place was in, Nero only hoped he wouldn't find the man he wad looking for here at all.

Even with the strength of his Bringer and its spectral form, it took Nero most of the day to clear a path through the wreckage. The crumples suits of Alto and Bianco Angelos lay strewn beneath the collapsed ceilings, but there wasn’t a single human body to be found. The only sign that anything living had been in the building before it collapsed was a single smear of dried blood on the cracked floor of the Advent Chamber. Nero placed his clawed hand over it, lightly dragging the talons along the stone paving; the blood had to be Credo’s, but then where was he?

Kyrie’s search had proved fruitless. None of the nurses had seen, nor even had word of, Credo at the hospital, though they wished her luck with her search. Their wishes hadn’t helped much, Kyrie thought, getting no news of her brother from the third knight she asked. It was getting late, the sun dipping dangerously low on the horizon, and Nero still hadn’t returned from Mitis Forest, though hopefully his avenue of exploration was doing better than hers.

Nero trudged his way back to town, drained from his efforts but still hopeful that Kyrie might have been able to shed more light on Credo’s whereabouts than he had. She was already there waiting for him at the edge of the Lapis River, and came running towards him, skirt hiked up to keep it from restricting her movement, as soon as he came in to view. “Please, tell me you found something” she pleaded, visibly worn from her own day of investigating dead ends. All he could do was shake his head, although he did have one comfort for her. “No Credo, but no body either, so he must have gone somewhere.”

“How can you be so sure he's still alive?”

Kyrie had already lost too much, and Nero didn’t want her to have to lose her brother as well, likely as that outcome may seem. “Because,” he told her, putting as much certainty into his words as he could muster, “Your brother is one of the strongest people I know, Kyrie. He'll come back from wherever he is, I know it.”

Nero held Kyrie close, comforting her. He had chosen not to tell her just how strong her brother was, how he had Ascended with the other Order higher-ups and become a demon. Nero knew Kyrie wasn’t stupid, that she would know that Credo had some kind of knowledge and involvement in the previous day’s events, being as highly ranked with the Knights and favoured among the Order as he was, but he couldn’t bring himself to let her know the full extent of it, not yet; if these were going to be Kyrie’s last memories of her brother, then he wanted them to remain as pure as she was.

-

Fortuna was a small island; everyone who lived there knew everyone else, and word travelled fast through the tight-knit community. That meant that, even with so many bodies unaccounted for, it wasn’t long before everyone knew exactly who was missing from amongst them, and Credo’s absence had not gone unnoticed.

It had been long enough that the people of the town were ready to mourn for those who were gone and move on with rebuilding, and it was decided that a monument would be erected in memory of all those whose lives were lost on the day of the False Saviour, bearing the names of all of Fortuna's beloved who were no longer present. It had also been decided, after much deliberation, that the names of Agnus and, although it pained them to say so, His Holiness, Sanctus, would be omitted for being the main cause of what had transpired. Citizens were invited to confirm the names of their deceased for the monument, and it wasn’t long before Kyrie was approached by one of the committee, asking if she would like to have Credo’s name added to the list.

Kyrie politely declined.

She wasn’t foolish enough to think, after all of this time, that there may still be a chance of finding her brother, but she chose not to have his name included in the masses of Fortuna's dead all the same. It didn’t feel like closure to her. Kyrie couldn’t grieve with the others, not without knowing the truth about what had happened to Credo – but how could she know that, when the last person to have seen him alive was no longer on the island?

Her question was answered by the arrival of a blue neon sign, addressed to Nero and shipped over from the mainland, bearing the phrase: “Devil May Cry".

There was no address included for returning to sender, nor any other contact information, but there was still no doubt who it could have come from; this was their link to the last person who knew what really happened to Credo. A bit of research on the sign revealed a small business by the same name, run by someone called Tony Redgrave. Whoever this ‘Tony' was, it was a safe bet to assume that he would know how to get in touch with Dante, so Nero gave the shop a call.

“Devil May Cry?” a voice answered – a familiar voice. _Perfect_ , Nero thought, _cuts out the middle man_.

“Dante,” he responded, “It’s Nero.”

“Kid!” the older man cut him off before he could continue. “I take it you got my little present – you like it?”

“Yeah, it’s great,” Nero replied unenthusiastically, hoping somewhere in the back of his mind that it didn’t come across as too sarcastic and ungrateful, because he did like it really; there were just some things that were more important than neon signs right now. “I have to ask you something.”

“I figured you probably would, sooner or later.” Dante sighed, “okay then, shoot.”

“What happened to Credo?”

There was a pause. “Okay, not the question I was expecting. Cre-who?”

“Credo, the guy who fell from the top of the Saviour statue! You caught him?” Nero fires back, his mind not even processing the fact that there was apparently something else he should be asking.

“Right, yeah. About him--" there was another pause, as though Dante wasn’t really sure how to word it, and Nero instantly knew what the answer was going to be without him saying anything.

“Where’s his body?”

“He didn’t leave one. Demons normally don’t-- unless you count when their soul forms into a weapon, but he didn’t leave one of those behind either.”

Nero’s thoughts went to the Aegis Shield he had taken from Credo after their fight – could that be a manifestation of part of his soul? And if it was... was that really all that they had left of him?

Dante, who had been staying quiet to let the news sink in, spoke again. “There's something else you might want to know; it's about the last thing he said, before he... you know.”

“What did he say?” God, Nero hated the way his voice cracked when he said that, catching on the tears that were trying to force their way into being.

“It was his final request, something he wanted me to do for him, since he couldn’t – he wanted me to make sure you both got out safe, you and his sister.”

Nero almost broke the phone handset with how hard he was clutching it; he could hear the hard plastic protesting against his grip. He had expected for Credo to want Kyrie brought back safely, but not him. Not he who had spurned the Order’s religion, who had been nothing but trouble and made life difficult for Credo for years. Never him.

“Thanks for telling me” he managed to choke out in response, abruptly hanging up the phone before Dante could offer him any more.

Kyrie appeared in the doorway at the sound of the telephone being set down, ready to ask what the news was – but she already knew, without either of them saying a word, by the sadness in Nero’s eyes when he looked at her. Instead, she came forward and wrapped her arms around him, and they both let loose the tears they had been holding back for so long.

Even after the tears stopped falling, the two of them continued to stay as they were, holding each other, neither one of them daring to loosen their grip, to pull away from the comfort they shared.

After a long while, Nero finally pulled back from the embrace, looking down into Kyrie’s still glistening eyes. A thought had occurred to him – that it wasn’t fair for him to keep the truth from her any longer than he already had.

“Kyrie, there’s something I never told you about your brother;" he began.

After all, how could the memory of a man who risked all to save his family, demon or not, be an evil one?

-

The Soldier’s Graveyard was filled with more people than it had seen in decades.

Credo had often commented on what an honour it was for those who had one served Sparda to be buried here, So it seemed only fitting that this be the location for the plaque in his memory.

It was supposed to have been a small service, a tight circle of family and those of the Knights who were closest to him, but word had spread quickly in their community, and more of the town than imaginable had come to share in their bereavement over the loss of a man who had been so dear to them, each in turn sharing their fondest memories: lives saved, lessons taught, and simple acts of kindness.

Kyrie had been the first to say her piece, and Nero would be the last. He approached the plaque; _‘In memory of Credo Eleison’_ it read, _‘a true Angel of Sparda’_. Nero didn’t offer any words; at this point, he didn’t think he could. The grief in everyone else’s hearts was weighing heavily on him, and Nero couldn’t help but feel as though he wasn’t worthy of speaking in Credo’s memory – as if the whole thing were entirely his fault. He should have done more to stop what happened, broken loose from the statue's grip and retrieved the Yamato before Sanctus had a chance to use it. Hell, he never should have allowed the old man to take it from him in the first place. Dante had trusted him with that sword, and look at where that had lead.

Nero called forth the Aegis Shield from his Devil Bringer, ignoring the whispers about him coming from the crowd. This was the last remaining piece of Credo’s soul, and Nero felt that it belonged here, where his body should have been. He wordlessly set the shield down amongst the abundance of flowers and returned to Kyrie’s side.

Nero didn’t cry, he had done enough of that already. He knew Credo wouldn’t mind; Nero couldn’t remember seeing him cry at his parents’ funeral, either. He had been unfaltering in his resolve, and served as a pillar of strength for him and Kyrie when they needed it most, and now it was his turn to do the same.

It was time for Nero to be stronger than he had ever been.

**Author's Note:**

> _Shout out to the beautiful['Memoriae' by Synchron](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21388477), and their wonderful epitaph on Credo's tombstone -_
>
>>   
>  _In Memory of Credo_
>> 
>> _The Angel who fell from Grace, yet rose once more upon a single Wing._  
>  May the Proud Blade find his Peace in the World he was Promised.  
> 
> 
> _I loved that, and I would have used it myself if not for two reasons:_
> 
> _1) I wanted a small, simple plaque as opposed to a tombstone;_
> 
> _and 2) That's called plagiarism._


End file.
